Fantastic Fest ’11 Review: ‘THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 (Full Sequence)’

In 2009, Tom Six released The Human Centipede onto Austin’s Fantastic Fest crowd. Two years later, Mr. Six is back with the sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). Now, I will admit that I wasn’t the hugest fan of the original film. The reason why was because everything that was shocking and built up to be shocking was shown in the trailer so there really wasn’t a lot of drive to actually see the film. While I didn’t personally like the original film, I get why people do. When I heard that he was going to make a sequel to the original film and it would make the first film look like “My Little Pony”, I was down to see how far he would push the limit. I can definitely say Tom Six pushed the new film past the limit as far as shock value. However, at what consequence?

Gone is the over-the-top but wickedly memorable villain of Dr. Heiter – that’s the good thing, he wasn’t resurrected through film “magic”. Meet Martin as Tom Six goes meta and basically introduces this character as a mentally unstable man who has an obsession with the original film, The Human Centipede. While this concept starts to introduce an interesting aspect, Six botches the prospective as Martin is very one-dimensional and practically becomes a caricature of the mentally disabled. Martin wants to create a bigger centipede with more than 10 people yet lacks the surgical prowess of Dr. Heiter.

Filmed in stark black & white, Tom Six introduces us to a different, grimier world than the original environment he introduced in the previous film. What he gives us is a look that combines Ansel Adams and hell. The first part of the movie is tedious, boring and repetitive. It is handled more as an art film. While the film is gorgeous to look at, the content cannot back up its dark imagery. Once Martin starts to assemble his human centipede, be prepared. The new entry in this ultimate body modification nightmare lacks some of the empathy The Human Centipede had which essentially just makes you want to get the film over with. Not only is the film degrading to society but it is degrading to the horror genre. The film is more of a gore highlight reel that lacks substance. It also treats the human’s bodily functions like premature fart jokes at times – not to mention the fact that a few scenes with human waste are in color.

If The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) taught me anything, it is that Tom Six had a great idea that he couldn’t fully execute the first time around but now that he is given a second opportunity, it exposes that the man has no clue how to make a cohesive film.